Conventionally, personal computers have been taken as main examples of means for viewing or listening to content items, such as moving images, pieces of music, voices, and still images, described in description languages, such as HTML (hypertext markup language), SVG (scalable vector graphics), SMIL (synchronized multimedia integration language), and FLASH, on the Internet and the like. A user accesses his/her desired content item by inputting the URL (uniform resource locator) address of the content item directly to a browser by an internet browser application program, and browses the content item by operating the browser.
The access can be simplified by the user's accessing a so-called portal site on the Internet and choosing, with use of an input device such as a mouse, a hyperlink in the portal site that will take him/her to the content item if he/she clicks on it.
Alternatively, the user can simplify the access by choosing a URL address, in accessing his/her desired content item, from among a plurality of URL addresses saved as “favorite” in his/her client terminal.
Patent Literature 1 discloses a technique for improving the operationality with which to view or listen to content items. According to this technique, a client's display has a fixed display area, provided on the lower side thereof, in which paging buttons are displayed. When a user chooses any one of the paging buttons with a mouse or the like, a URL is read out from a bookmark file under a procedure according to the type of the paging button chosen, and hypertext information corresponding to the URL is accessed. Such a button display allows the user to move a cursor less to choose one URL from among URLs stored in a bookmark file. That is, the user can access his/her desired content item by operating the paging buttons.
Further, Patent Literature 2 discloses a technique by which, while a user is browsing the contents of his/her desired content item that he/she has accessed, the user easily gives instructions for controlling the display range such as switching from one page to another in the content item being displayed or scrolling through the content item being displayed.
According to this technique, a display section displays a screen for an operation mode. Next, it is judged whether or not a warp key (browser function key) has been pressed in displaying, by scrolling, a portion that is not being displayed on the current screen. If the warp key (browser function key) has been pressed, a change in scrolling mode is made. If the warp key (browser function key) has not been pressed, the current scrolling mode is maintained. Examples of variations in scrolling mode are a line-by-line scrolling mode and a page-by-page scrolling mode. That is, the display range is controlled, for example, by varying the extent of content scrolling with an input device and buttons provided by a browser application program.
In recent years, various home appliances such as portable phones, mobile terminals, and television receivers, as well as personal computers, have been used to connect to the Internet, thus making it possible to view or listen to content items on the Internet. This creates a demand for an operationality-improving technique that can be applied to devices having no general-purpose input means such as mouses.